CHROMATOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES IN PHARMACEUTICAL ANALYSIS IN POIAND: HISTORY AND THE PRESENCE ON THE BASIS OF PAPERS PUBLISHED IN SELECTED POLISH PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNALS IN XX CENTURY.

For a long time, chromatographic techniques and techniques related to them have stimulated the development of new procedures in the field of pharmaceutical analysis. The newly developed methods, characterized by improved metrological parameters, allow for more accurate testing of, among others, the composition of raw materials, intermediates and final products. The chromatographic techniques also enable studies on waste generated in research laboratories and factories producing pharmaceuticals and parapharmaceuticals. Based on the review of reports published in Polish pharmaceutical journals, we assessed the impact of chromatographic techniques on the development of pharmaceutical analysis. The first chromatographic technique used in pharmaceutical analysis was a so-called capillary analysis. It was applied in the 1930s to control the identity of pharmaceutical formulations. In the 1940s and 1950s, the chromatographic techniques were mostly a subject of review publications, while their use in experimental work was rare. Paper chromatography and thin layer chromatography were introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. These new analytical tools have contributed to the intensive development of research in the field of phytochemistry and the analysis of herbal medicines. The development of colunm chromatography-based techniques, i.e., gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography took place in the end of 20th century. Both aforementioned techniques were widely applied in pharmaceutical analysis, for example, to assess the stability of drugs, test for impurities and degradation products as well as in pharmacokinetics studies. The first decade of 21" century was the time of new detection methods in gas and liquid chromatography. The information sources used to write this article were Polish pharmaceutical journals, both professional and scientific, originating from the interwar and post-war period, i.e., "Kronika Farmaceutyczna", "Farmacja Współczesna", "Wiadomości Farmaceutyczne", "Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica", "Farmacja Polska", "Dissertationes Pharmaceuticae", "Annales UMCS sectio DDD Phamacia". The number of published works using various chromatography techniques was assessed based on the content description of individual issues of the journal "Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica".